I want to unlock the last two Monster classes. For this i need to beat VHoS once again and NC twice.

What i've already done:VHoS:Orc Berzerker (with dragon shield i think)Elf Sorcerer (elven boots + fireball + found JJ)---Would think a Wizard could work similar to the Sorcerer (less mana but spells are cheaper; Sorcerer destroys the DP faster, but i think with the Wizard it should also work). Probably Dragon Soul instead of Elven Boots and don't care about resistence (advantage: no fear of curses).Other ideas? Please nothing which worships Mystera, think for me she would be suicide in this dungeon, since the easy monsters all have magical attacks

----------------------------------------------------------------

NC:Did it with an dedicated Orc Rogue once:Dragon Shield + prepped TT. First high level kills -> join TT -> farm piety -> stack poison. In underground i converted to Dracul for Lifesteal.---With an assassin a similar strat could work. But for other classes i don't think so.PISSORF Orc Wizard sounds like a nice idea...

Fireball Casters work well on VHoS. The Bloodmage, Wizard, Assassin, or (in a pinch) the Fighter all make great fireball casters and will serve you well here. Fighter is a little tough to get traction with in vicious scenarios, though. In any case, the approach will be similar to your Sorcerer. The key difference with the Bloodmage is using blood pools and B2P effectively, and an Assassin will be more focused on level-up catapults. The martyr wraps is an excellent preparation for this dungeon.

For NC, I'd say your easiest bets will be Gnome Warlord and Human Paladin, using JJ and GG as your deity preps respectively (although both will work well in either case). Ensure you bring along a compression scroll, since inventory space will be at a premium with either deity prep. The Paladin should prep the Dragonshield, while the Warlord has a wider variety of choices; Trisword, Dragon Soul, Alchemist's Scroll, or Namtar's Ward (if you have it) are all good picks. Ensure you prep extra attack boosters, since attack damage is your most important bonus. One good option is to prepare Patches along with a burn cure potion. Warlords can handle poison and Paladins can cure it, so all you need to do is clear off the occasional mana burn and the long-term benefit will be well worthwhile. You can convert Patches prior to entering the arena.

The venerable Binlor Paladin works well in both of those dungeons. Spend most of your exploration at 1st level building up magic resistance and then go to town. The Punchomancer (Human/Orc Wizard with a heavy conversion focus, just search for "Punchomancer") is a universal strategy that works as well.

Fun trick with VHoS: Pack a blacksmith shield. The Indomitable's damage will eventually drop all the way to 1. If you prevent that damage with the shield, your corrosion stacks don't trigger and that ends up being hundreds of points of damage that you don't have to take.

EDIT: I misread NC as NL The Punchomancer still works in Naga City, but not so much for the Binlor Paladin.

Sidestepper wrote:Fun trick with VHoS: Pack a blacksmith shield. The Indomitable's damage will eventually drop all the way to 1. If you prevent that damage with the shield, your corrosion stacks don't trigger and that ends up being hundreds of points of damage that you don't have to take.

This is nice to know. In my second run with the Sorcerer i found the blacksmith subdungeon, but converted everything apart from the badge.

Actually, as far as I remember it drops down to 3, but prepping earthmoter or Taurog (for vine form and shield respectively) should do the trick. Also, prep a burn salve for all the corrosion. Since 3 damage reduction and a burn salve is all you need to kill the indomitable, you pretty much have the layout, the monster roster and blah blah to take into account and there's lots of stuff that works.

Orc paladin of GG had done NC warmonger for me (if I remember correctly), and Binlor paladin can do pretty much anything if you know your way around him (including VT VGT). You can also do it with a binlor worshiping monk.

Hmmm... now I'm not entirely sold on Orc in NC. Unless you can really leverage your early-game for lots of bonus XP, a Human will pass him for damage by the time you descend into the arena. I think the human is the way to go here.

I would like to second the Human Paladin for Naga City. On my first attempt as the Human Paladin of Glowing Guardian with prepared Dragon Shield, I did Naga City almost Parched (but took an unnecessary potion as an added precaution), and then went on to do Dragon Isles properly Parched. This is a *very* powerful combination, especially with the Dragon Shield. So powerful, in fact, that I've made myself a rule that I may not attempt any dungeon with the Dragon Shield prepared until I've beaten it without

Also, my preferred method of completely nullifying The Indomitable's damage in Vicious HoS was the Platemail. The effect kicks in earlier, which might save you some blackspace, but it arguably presents a bigger opportunity cost (whether as a prep or as an in-dungeon buy). Still, I've prepped the Quest Items from Bezar when I went in that dungeon and it almost always turned up. When I first realised what the Damage Reduction did to The Indomitable, I thought it was a bug, since it makes the boss practically trivial if you know how to efficiently take away death protection. With the Platemail, you're practically cutting the amount of Death Protection by half! (I forget the exact number)

Sounds like goblin assassin with platemail and a burn salve will be a cakewalk in VHoS.

Haven't done many NC runs lately. Prep a god, though (or play a crusader). A shame to waste an entire level's worth of play and get no piety for it. Remember than you can buy piety with TT once you get downstairs, that you can desecrate EM for 30 piety and 3 indulgences for free with the proper preps, and PM is there for another 50. That's 100 free piety, easily, which is more than enough for all sorts of great things. If you come downstairs with no resistances, Binlor is just waiting to be abused for even more. The more I think about it, NC is "just" an "easy" test of your religion knowledge (compared to VGT).

Wow. Had never done platemail on VHoS before. Had no idea that corrosion was after other damage, and if there was no other damage, there was no corrosion damage. Amazing. You learn something new every day.

I think it's "widely accepted" that VHoS is the easiest of the vicious dungeons, but platemail makes it barely even hard. I almost don't want to keep talking about it, lest they change the way it works... so I won't.

Yes, Lujo is right. Damage drops only to 3 -> only shield won't work.But nevertheless, the Gnome Wizard stormed through it. Directly found WONAYT and after popcorn bowling all lvl1 i found JJ. With the prepped burn salve and the additional potion-shops i had enough to get rid o all the corrosion.With around 8 mana-pots, 23 mana (thanks JJ and Mage Plate), Dragon Soul and probably a mid-fight-lvlup there were enough fireballs to burn Count Blah Blah after using WHUPAAZ.

NC i didn't try. But made a short run with the vampire in the cave. Think vampire needs somewhat time to get used to. But seems really powerful with the right gear and glyphs.